CEO

March 17 Lecture – Unlocking the secrets of brain aging

Unlocking the secrets of brain aging

with Prof. Daniela Kaufer

Saturday March 17, 2018 at 11:00 AM

100 Genetics and Plant Biology, UC Berkeley

Aging can involve a decline in neural function that impairs cognition and contributes to neurological diseases. However, the biological mechanisms that cause the transition from a young-and-healthy to aged-and-dysfunctional brain are not well understood. In this talk, Dr. Kaufer will describe recent findings from her lab which identified a novel mechanism underlying this transition. She will also talk about brain changes that follow injury or confusion, and give us a behind the scenes glimpse of the path to this discovery.

Brain Aging- image: Kalvicio de las Nieves

Daniela Kaufer

Daniela Kaufer earned her PhD from The Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel and was a neurosurgery research fellow at Stanford. Currently, she is a professor of Neuroscience and Integrative Biology at UC Berkeley. Research in the Kaufer lab focuses on the events that underlie the plasticity of the brain in the face of stress and neurological insults throughout life, with a particular focus on developmental trajectories towards cognitive, emotional and neurological vulnerability vs. resilience. Kaufer is the recipient of the NIMH director BRAINS award to study pathways that lead from early life stress to mental illness vulnerability and the BAKAR fellowship to study post-traumatic epilepsy.